Turnabout Retribution
by icer01
Summary: Post-game 4, Phoenix is kidnapped by one of the criminals he got locked up. Can Maya, Trucy and Apollo save him?


_Written for Meme request. Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice etc are property of Capcom._

Apollo was at Mr Wright's office, attempting to combat some of that overflowing paperwork in the aftermath of his cases. Trucy was also present, practising some obnoxiously earsplitting magic trick whilst simultaneously giving a raucous rendition of the 'Aluminium Samurai' theme song.

"_Please_ stop singing", begged Apollo, his sensitive head throbbing. What was it with the Wright Family and those terrible kiddie Samurai shows? (And why did he refer to them as the Wright Family when seemingly none of them were genetically related to Mr Wright?) Just the other day, when he'd come to the office, some highly cultured-sounding man had been there wearing a Steel Samurai mask. Upon Trucy announcing to Apollo that she, Mr Wright and the visitor were about to attend some Steel Samurai convention, the man had grown agitated, refused both to take off the mask or state his name, and charged out the door, demanding "Wright" hurry up. It was all most disconcerting.

To Apollo's relief, Trucy was distracted by a call to her mobile phone. His relief was short-lived, however, as Trucy gave a terrified scream of "_DADDY_!!", becoming far more discomposed and emotional that he'd ever previously seen her.

"Nooo.." cried Trucy, desperately punching buttons on her phone in order to make another call. She was met by nothing but the electronic voice of the operator stating her call could not be connected.

"What happened?" enquired Apollo, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Trucy looked completely distraught, a side of her he had never previously borne witness to.

Trucy made a half-headed attempt to regain her performance composure, and failed. "Daddy rang," she gulped. "There were these weird noises. And he yelled 'HELP!!' Then there was a bang, and he said 'Gunman. DL-4233. DL-8341. At..'. Then there was a sound like an explosion, and the phone stopped working. And I can't call him now."

Apollo began to panic. "I.. guess I should write all that down.." trembled Trucy. "Uh… what should we do?"

The pair sat in stunned silence for a moment, racking their brains as to the best course of action. Suddenly the office phone rang. Trucy dazedly picked it up.

"Hello? ..Oh, hi Maya. Sorry, Daddy's not here now… uh… well actually things are kind of bad.." Trucy was so worried about Phoenix that she found herself spilling the situation to Maya. "We think he's in some kind of trouble.. he called me for help, but the phone stopped working.. No, we don't know where he is…"

"I'm coming over right away!" proclaimed Maya.

"Maya is in the city and is coming over right now," explained Trucy to Apollo.

"Oh," was all Apollo could reply. He had met Mystic Maya only on one brief occasion, time enough for Apollo to establish that she considered herself some kind of spirit medium, was rabidly obsessed with those tedious Samurai shows, and was some kind of friend of Mr Wright's.

* * *

"Have you heard from him? What did he say in his phone call?" demanded Maya by way of greeting.

Wordlessly, Trucy passed Maya the paper where she had transcribed Phoenix's phone conversation.

"Gunman. DL-4233. DL-8341," Maya breathed aloud.

"Those sound like case file numbers," commented Apollo.

"I'll look them up," suggested Trucy, rushing to the filing shelf. "_Polly_! I can't find a thing since you reorganised Daddy's filing system!"

"But Mr Wright's filing system appeared to be in random order," defended Apollo.

Maya, seemingly oblivious to their banter, had closed her eyes and clamped her palms together in intense concentration, reminiscent of her stance during waterfall training. "DL-4233..." she was murmuring to herself. Suddenly she gave an audible gasp. Apollo and Trucy turned to look at her.

"I remembered! Nickel Samurai!"

"Yeah, it _is_ that time of day.." agreed Trucy.

"WHAT! All you can think of is obscene TV shows you're missing at a time like _this_?" seethed exasperated Apollo.

Ignoring Apollo, Maya continued. "Engarde. His prison term ended recently, didn't it. And DL-8341 – that's Hazakurain. _Nick_..."

Trucy had finally located the relevant case files. "I think Matt Engarde may have had Nick kidnapped," explained Maya. "He'd have a grudge against him for getting him jailed. It's not someone from the Hazakura case, because Diego wouldn't and I'm sure nobody is channelling Dahlia."

Bemused Apollo was unable to follow her skewed logic, but they had no other leads to go on, after all.

Maya whipped out her phone as she headed for the doorway.

"Where are you going?" asked Trucy.

"Hazakurain. And I'm also calling the police."

"Wait! Guess what, Polly's leaning to drive!"

Maya's eyes visibly lit up. "Could you drive to Hazakurain?"

"Um.." stammered Apollo. "I'm still learning, so I'm not supposed to drive without an instructor…"

"Who cares. _Could_ you drive to Hazakura?"

"Well.. I guess so.." What was it with these people and their disregard for minor criminal infractions?

* * *

Hazakurain wasn't very far, merely a 30min trip, which Maya and Trucy spent the entirety of attempting to mobilise police to search for Phoenix. They didn't appear to take the request particularly seriously, but finally they got in contact with Ema Skye who was able to get some kind of investigation happening.

They were nearby Hazakurain when Maya cried "Look! A helicopter!"

Perched on the top of a sheer slope was a group of newish-looking buildings, with a stationary helicopter perched next to them. It seemed unusual. "Stop the car!" Maya demanded.

They got out and peered up the slope. "I don't know. They're just buildings.." muttered Apollo. Suddenly an explosive sound cracked out of the building and across the mountains.

"Is that.. a gunshot?" wondered Apollo.

"_Nick_!!" hissed Maya, as if in physical pain. She shut her eyes and concentrated for several moments. "He's still alive," she pronounced relievedly.

"How the hell does she know that?" whispered Apollo to Trucy.

"Because if he was dead, she could contact his spirit and channel it, I guess," replied Trucy.

"Well, whatever keeps her positive, I suppose," sighed incredulous Apollo.

Maya started determinedly in the direction of the steps leading up the slope.

"Stop! We can't go up there! It's too dangerous!" flailed Apollo.

"Of course _we_ can't go up there," confirmed Maya. "_You_ should go and get the police. And whatever you do, look after Trucy!"

"You're.. going up there?"

"Hurry! Time is of the essence!"

"But you can't go up there! You might get shot!"

Maya sighed with a mixture of pity and exasperation. "Obviously you don't understand how it is between Nick and I. Now take Trucy and get the police!"

She set off without a backward glance.

* * *

Engarde, never one to do his own dirty work, had hired a team of 5 thugs to capture Phoenix and deliver his to this location. Phoenix was now tightly bound, his hands immobilised behind his back, feet tied together, gag in his mouth rendering him incapable of speech, his body chained to the wall. Engarde seethed that the long wait for Phoenix to regain consciousness had delayed his 'audience' with Mr Wright.

Engarde bore little semblance to the stunningly handsome star of old. He rambled insanity and seethed revenge. Incapacitated Phoenix was forced to listen to a lengthy tirade which appeared to blame him, Phoenix Wright, for every problem in the universe.

Much as Engarde waved a gun in Phoenix's face and threatened to shoot him, he certainly was taking a surprisingly long time to actually do so. Recalling that Engarde had hired an assassin to perform murder for him last time, Phoenix wearily hypothesised that the same thugs who had delivered him would shortly return to dispose of him. He supposed abuse would be limited to Engarde's incessant punches in the meantime.

Suddenly a manic glimmer seized Engarde's pupils, and he rammed the tip of the gun into Phoenix's head. "That's enough!" he growled, putting his finger to the trigger. "I see I won in the end, Mr Lawyer. Are you sorry you got that 'Guilty' verdict now?"

_So it comes to this_, thought Phoenix surreally. _No, I still don't regret getting that guilty verdict. How ironic that this fiasco will end up killing one of us anyway. What a relief it will be me and not Maya._

Engarde searched Phoenix's eyes for the gratification of witnessing his fear or regret, but there was none to be seen. Phoenix stared back evenly, unbroken.

Engarde's hatred exploded exponentially as he pulled the trigger.

Phoenix's expression changed, his pupils dilating hugely in shock.

Something.. _someone_.. had leaped onto the back of Engarde, causing him to unbalance and lurch slightly sideways, the bullet missing Phoenix by millimetres.

"_Maya_.." mouthed Phoenix, speech prevented by his gag.

The element of surprise had given Maya a head start, and she rammed a suffocating sack over Engarde's head, drawing it closed in an indelible knot as he flung her off. The knot was of the type which sorely required vision to unscramble, and was based on one of the standard configurations of physical Psyche-Locks.

Phoenix winced as Maya was slammed painfully into the wall. Nonetheless, she was up again, a calculating expression consuming her face. Though, remembering Engarde's endless boasts about winning martial arts competitions and being an action star, surely Maya had drawn the short straw.

Engarde made a brief attempt to remove the bag from his head, but was thwarted both by the knot and lack of suitable bag-tearing devices. While one hand's attention was consumed with the knot, he loosened his grip on the other, the gun. Engarde attempted to shoot in the direction of Maya, but here she slammed his hand with the only weapon she had managed to acquire outdoors, an impaling metal rake. The gun was knocked flying, the bullet exploding into a wall.

After a precursory blind search for the gun, Engarde gave up and decided to attack physically. He flawlessly executed an impressive martial arts move, Phoenix hyperventilating in terror as Maya leapt directly into the path of the imminent collision. At the last moment, Engarde flung himself to the right, missing Maya who was exactly where his feint had landed. Engarde executed another complex sequence of movements.. but it seemed Maya was one step ahead of him and his destination only contained a thrashing from Maya's rake and no Maya. Engarde attempted a third attack.. but was again thwarted by Maya at every turn.

After some time, Maya began to tire, thus receiving the full brunt of the incensed Engarde. He clamped his hands around Maya's neck, choking her. Having caught his prey, he began to toy with it. "Untie me now, bitch. Or I'll snap your neck."

Maya merely racked her brains for more scenarios to stall for time. Maybe she could somehow lure him outside...

* * *

Maya was taking an incessantly long time to 'untie' Engarde's headbag, when finally a police offer arrived on the scene.

"Help! He's trying to shoot us!" she implored the officer, who rapidly called in the backup and corralled Engarde.

Poor Phoenix was still immobilised by his bounds. "Please untie him," Maya begged a vacant police officer, who finally cut him free.

"Nick... Are you okay?" queried Maya apprehensively.

Phoenix coughed weakly. "I.. I don't know how to thank you.."

"Well don't then. Don't mention it. It was nothing." Suddenly her eyes filled with tears. "I.. I'm sorry. That was awful..."

Phoenix grew a little teary eyed himself. Maya helped him to his feet and the pair spontaneously hugged.

* * *

"I don't get it," marvelled Phoenix later to Maya. "How did you manage to outsmart all Engarde's martial arts moves? It was like you were one step ahead of him the whole time."

"Well…" considered Maya. "I knew he was too much of an uncreative idiot to do something new when he couldn't see. So I assumed he'd just do all his Nickel Samurai moves. So I just predicted where they'd end up."

"Uh..?"

"Oh yeah. And he did! First was the Nickel Samurai Smelting. I've only seen it a billion times! Then there was the Nickel Samurai Smash... It was all kind of instinctive."

It seemed all Maya's TV watching had indeed finally been useful for something.


End file.
